Word Count: 2335

◼️𝐏 𝐎 𝐊 𝐄 𝐌 𝐎 𝐍◼️

Lyra~

"Ethan told me you were in Pallet Town," I recalled as we seated ourselves onto the large boulders nearby. Exchanger nodded briefly before Green answered me. "I thought it would be better if Exchanger was here to discuss with us. Blue is occupied with Gym Leader duties right now, and I'm still trying to piece together Exchanger's story."

"What do you mean 'piece together'? We have Exchanger with us, so all we need to do is to combine his and S's stories," Ethan noted.

Green lifted her gaze from the ground and towards Ethan. "I'll explain what I know after either you or Lyra tell me who S is. I'm sure Exchanger is curious as to who they are as well."

Ethan turned to me, probably for permission; however, I wanted to be the one explaining who S was. After all, we are the same person. I told Green and Exchanger everything I remembered from my conversation with S. I made sure to clarify some points by noting the letters and strange activity—at least, what I thought was strange—that had happened during my journey with Silver.

As I spoke, I noticed Exchanger's eyes were staring straight at me. They lit up for a moment which made my chest tighten a bit. I started to stumble over my words, thinking about whether to be sympathetic as Exchanger seemed to be wondering if S was the same Lyra he knew from his timeline. I could somewhat tell as his gaze kept averting every time I mention S.

Green took note of this and cleared her throat. "So S is your counterpart... from the future, I assume? I'm guessing that's how Exchanger survived disappearing on us. Her lifeform dying would give Celebi enough energy to sustain Exchanger, but why..."

"Is S the same Lyra from your timeline, Exchanger?" Ethan asked, which was the same thought I had in mind. For a bit, Exchanger was silent while breathing slowly.

"No... it's not the Lyra that I know. I don't think she can use Celebi before she died in Ecruteak City. Do you remember when I mentioned how the events that happened in your timeline are almost the same as what had happened in my timeline? It turns down any possibility of such, especially if she was also the one who handed you the letters," Exchanger answered.

"So that means you came from a different timeline."

Exchanger nodded at my words. "I didn't know S was here when I first arrived. I was too focused on making sure you were alive, Lyra. However, I knew that Evolver was here. Even if I didn't read Pryce's letter, I knew she was already here."

"So Blue and I believed that the order of time travellers was S, Exchanger, and then Evolver. As for the letters being taken away from you guys, Blue believes it's because in the past I was able to adapt to situations quickly. This would explain why Evolver was able to take the letters while attempting to lead you guys on to suspect S or Exchanger," Green added.

"But she failed, because we know she was the one who did that," Ethan pointed out. 

"It has to be more than that. If I was in that situation, there's no way I wouldn't make myself that transparent. I met Evolver while I was retrieving Lyra's bag with Morty. There has to be a deeper motive than just trying to manipulate Silver," Green noted. 

This case felt more complicated than usual. I had thought it would be easy since it would've been just Silver and Evolver we'd have to worry about. A small part of me felt frustrated with just sitting here and talking when we could do something to stop Silver. I knew that I wasn't awake for too long, so everything blowing up in front of my face would be hard to take in. But why did I feel... so irritated?

"So what do we do? Can't we just go and face Team Rocket? What's holding us back? It can't be just Evolver's presence. We can work around that," I spoke up.

"I understand that you want things to be over soon—trust me, I know how you feel, but we can't act irrationally. Better safe than sorry," Green replied, sighing while crossing her arms and legs.

"Wouldn't having myself show up in front of Silver solve anything? I could try to convince him that it's me and stop him from continuing his plan to cause chaos!"

I didn't realize I was raising my voice and stopped talking. Green sighed again, softer than her last one, and furrowed her eyebrows. One of her hands clenched into a fist, trembling slightly against the boulder. Did I go too far?

"Green, what's wrong?" Exchanger asked.

"I'm just confused..."

"With?" Ethan questioned

"Team Rocket has not done any major crimes in the past three years after the executives' deaths. The fire that was supposed to happen in Ecruteak City would have happened while Lyra's still alive. Since Lyra's awake now, that means whatever happens after today will contribute to Team Rocket's plan of world destruction. What's bugging me is what S and Exchanger had to say about the situation."

"Do you want me to clarify a few more things for you?" Exchanger asked.

Green shook her head. "For now, the path is clear. I just feel that... something off. It's about Silver. Ever since Archer's death, Silver had done nothing that would hint any desire to bring chaos. We had Morty use his Ghost Pokémon to check what Silver had been doing, and all he had done was stay in one area in the Sinnoh Region."

"So we don't know what Silver's next move would be... Are you worried that things will not turn out how S and Exchanger had predicted?" I questioned Green.

"I'm trying to understand the situation as if neither Exchanger nor S was here. I'm trying to think this realistically. You said S failed to accomplish her goal of preventing the chaos from happening, and this is the same case with Exchanger. Where did both of them go wrong?"

I can understand where Green was coming from but are we not in a good position since we had Exchanger with us? Not to mention I had S's memories with me. But then again, we could make a mistake which could be big trouble for us.

Green leaned back and let out a breath. "Anyways, the main point is that Silver's decisions are being heavily influenced by Evolver. We plan to get Evolver away from Silver first. That way, we can reassure a successful plan to stop Silver. Since Celebi likely used S's lifeform to sustain Exchanger in this timeline, could Celebi do the same thing with Evolver?"

In an instant, Ethan got up from the boulder and stared at Green with disbelief. "Do you know what you're saying?"

Green raised a brow. "Excuse me? Evolver is the main influencer of this whole ordeal. I'm saying we should use Celebi to get rid of Evolver and then convince Silver—"

"You can't!" Ethan exclaimed over Green. "You're expecting us to exploit Celebi like that!? Celebi is innocent! It did nothing wrong and you have no right to abuse its powers like that—"

"Who said I planned on abusing its powers?"

"It's obvious what your intentions are. 'How to get rid of Evolver?' Through Celebi, of course. What else are you going to do to Celebi if not exploit it?

Green hopped off of the boulder and crossed her arm, fingers noticeably gripping tightly onto her skin. She stood in front of Ethan and glared at him with an intimidating stare. They were almost the same height as each other; Ethan was a bit taller though. 

I noticed Exchanger scooted closer to me and held my arm. He didn't look scared, but I'm sure he felt as intimidated as I am. It was a mutual feeling we had towards Green.

"You realize this is a perfect opportunity for us to get rid of Silver's main source of influence, right? There's no need to hold back in this case. I'm not saying we should force Celebi to do it, but I'm sure it'll understand our situation—it had understood when it kept Exchanger here!"

"That's different!" Ethan retorted.

"Do you have a better idea? If we let Lyra strut her way to the base, Evolver would try to get rid of her. That would fuel Silver's anger even more. Silver's like a brother figure to me, so of course, I want what's best for him. Evolver's getting out of hand and it won't be long before Silver goes mad and continues to plan on destroying this world!"

"That's enough, guys..." I tried to step in. Ethan took deep breaths before sitting back on his boulder defeated. He muttered something to himself, but he spoke so quietly and quickly that I wasn't able to pick it up. Green clicked her teeth and also sat on her boulder. 

"I still can't believe Silver's willing to do this..." I muttered

"I'm not surprised. This entire time, Silver believed you're dead, and he cares about you a lot. What's the point of moving forward if you're not able to get what you want?"

"We can't have everything. There's no such thing as a perfect world," Ethan responded.

"Tell that to Silver when we find him, and when we all get up on our feet to go to Pallet Town where we should be."

"You wanted us to be here, Green. You just said you brought Exchanger here to discuss with us," Ethan fired back.

"I didn't; Exchanger wanted to talk to you. It's more suitable to get things out of the way, so I had this discussion arranged."

I turned to Exchanger who had his head resting on my shoulder. His gaze fell to the ground. It seemed as if he was staring into space. I nudged his arm lightly, which prompted him to raise his head and stare at me. However, as he did, his gaze wavered away from my eyes. I wonder how much pain he must've felt watching me die in his timeline. 

Green and Ethan did nothing to interrupt Exchanger's gestures, but I wasn't paying much attention to their reactions. When I glanced at them for a second, Green's gaze appeared neutral while Ethan kept shifting his gaze from Exchanger to me. Green might not care that much, considering that Exchanger wasn't the Silver she knew, and I'm sure Ethan feels just as sympathetic as I did.

"I'm right here," I whispered under my breath for him to hear, smiling to myself as well. Exchanger nodded his head. It had been for a moment before Green cleared her throat.

"Anyways, we should head to Pallet Town as I've mentioned. Blue is waiting for us, and there are some other people I want you to meet, Lyra," she told us.

Ethan got up on his feet first. I got up as well, hoisting Exchanger up to a standing position. After I did, I took notice of Exchanger's height. Had he always been taller than me, since three years ago?

"I was worried that Team Rocket would take notice of Lyra. That's why I was being cautious. Since Silver is the leader, I'm sure that every member must've been educated to know about your existence," Green informed me, to which I nodded back. 

From what Ethan told me in New Bark Town, I was sure there had to be a large number of people in affiliation to Team Rocket. If any of them spotted me, they would recognize me quickly which would be brought back to Silver. At first, I thought it wasn't a bad thing, but then I remembered that the grunts would likely tell Evolver too. 

"Anyways, Team Rocket is well known in all regions. As I had mentioned before, Silver's in Sinnoh at the moment. Their main bases are Goldenrod City in Johto, Saffron City here in Kanto, and Veilstone City in Sinnoh. We still want to be precautious, so long as Lyra doesn't bring too much attention."

"I'm sure Silver would hold a bit of hope that Lyra's alive, so there must be spies in each region," Exchanger added to Green's comment. 

Green suddenly stopped walking, just before she stepped onto the ladder. She turned around, facing me. "That reminds me of something. I heard you were dating Silver. When did this happen?"

"Actually, I wouldn't say we're dating... it was just that we had an... intimate moment," I replied, my cheeks heating up as I did.

"Intimate? Wait, hold up—"

"It was just a kiss!" I blurted out, raising my hands out in front of my face.

Green paused for a moment and let out a huff. "You don't need to be embarrassed. Experience is always needed in the future."

My eyes widened as I tried to comprehend what she had said. As she climbed the ladder, Exchanger placed his hand on my shoulder and whispered in my ear.

"She and Blue are quite close, in case you haven't noticed. The events that happened five years ago did a lot between them—even during the years before that. I heard she met them before I met Gold—Ethan... sorry."

I smiled once again at him and nodded. "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."

Once Ethan climbed the ladder after Green, Exchanger nodded in my direction before following Ethan. I smiled to myself, reaching down my bag to grip onto the USB the professor gave me. Once I gave it a swift squeeze, I also proceeded to climb the ladder.

◼️𝐏 𝐎 𝐊 𝐄 𝐌 𝐎 𝐍◼️

Be sure to vote and comment on the story. Also, please correct me on any mistakes that might have appeared in this chapter.

Hope you enjoyed it and are looking forward to the next chapter~

~Lisa~